Page - 324 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 5324 Kralovice (1575–1581) [Fig. 5.85] that has convincingly been attributed to him by Jarmila Krčálová. But Wolmut was called to Prague by Archduke Ferdinand— he was first mentioned as a ‘königlicher majestet paumeister’ in 1554—and would remain working in Bohemia for the rest of his career.125 Both Ferdinand i and his two sons must have been aware of the limits of these masters, too few of whom were, however competent in the practice of their craft, sufficiently educated to be able to assimilate, understand, and cre- Figure 5.83 Domenico dell’Allio, the Landhaus in Graz: Facade, ca. 1556–1560. 125 The Ballhaus is perhaps the most outstanding Renaissance building in the whole of the Habsburg territories. On Wolmut, see Erich Hubala, ‘Palast- und Schlossbau, Villa und Gartenarchitektur in Prag und Böhmen’, in: Renaissance in Böhmen 1985, pp. 27–114, es- pecially pp. 105–-108; Krčalová 1972. As the character and quality of his works indicate, Wolmut was a learned architect: the inventory of his library, acquired at his death by the Czech poet Pontanus (Jiří Barthold Pontanus z Breitenberka), has been published in Kořán 1960. Little is known of Wolmut’s early career, but his style presupposes a visit to Italy. The forthcoming book on Wolmut by Sarah Lynch, based on her Princeton dis- sertation, ‘Ein liebhaber aller freyen khünst’: Bonifaz Wolmut and the Architecture of the European Renaissance (January 2017), will throw fresh light on this outstanding artist.